The Southern
by scott mees
Saturday, August 23, 2008
CARBONDALE - Mohamed Mohamed, a standout cross country runner for Southern Illinois University, moved to the United States at the age of 8 from Somalia.
The senior worked his way up and became an athletic star in high school, and went on to SIU where he was the Missouri Valley Conference champion in 2006.
But he suffered a fractured heel last season and will redshirt his senior year.
Mohamed is still running about 75 miles per week, but he felt like he needed to take this season with caution.
"I'm not in much pain but I am redshirting because I'm not in 100 percent shape for the season," Mohamed said. "It's healed, but it's tough because I haven't gotten to race for almost a year now."
Even though he's won multiple all-conference awards and an MVC title, he's aiming for bigger and better things in the future.
"I want do to more than what I've already done," Mohamed said. "I want to be in the Top 20 in the country."
Mohamed didn't know much about the sport when he came to the United States, but he's made up for that doing quite a bit of homework.
"There really wasn't a person to teach him and I told him what the best guys do," said SIU cross country coach Matt Sparks. "He read about it and started to do things and the rest of the team followed suit."
Sparks said the loss of Mohamed this season isn't that significant because he'll be that much stronger for the next campaign.
"At this point he is over the injury bug, and it's just a matter of keeping him healthy," Sparks said. "If we did push him when he isn't as fit he might overrun and cause another injury. We'd rather be a bit more conservative and let him steadily regain his fitness"
The cross country season lasts 11 months of the year, so Mohamed must maintain his stamina and watch what he eats daily.
"I always watch my diet because you can get out of shape pretty fast," Mohamed said. "I don't have to watch it much now that I'm running, but I don't eat much junk food."
The life of a cross country runner isn't an easy one and requires extreme self-discipline, and Mohamed has been an example for his teammates.
"It is a time commitment but also a lifestyle commitment," Sparks said. "If you go out and party eventually you're body will wear down and you'll spread yourself too thin. Eventually all of that will catch up with you."
Growing up as a small child in Somalia life wasn't always great for Mohamed, and the move to America turned out to be a great choice. The senior holds a 3.1 GPA in accounting.
"The only hard thing was the language," Mohamed said of moving to the United States. "Civil wars broke out there so it was easy to get into a normal lifestyle here."
scott.mees@thesouthern.com / 351-5086